Today was a hard day. It started off with really steep hills, when we tried skiing up alone, even zig zagging, our sleds dragged us back down. Second hill we tried leaving one sled and both walking up dragging one. Third steep hill tried both walking but both harnessed in to the sled but by then the snow was too deep and we were sinking to our knees every step. Fourth (and thankfully last) steep hill of our planned day we each skied up both harnessed to one sled then went back for the other. This worked so much easier and we’ll do this going forward when it gets so steep.

Then the blizzard came in

But then a blizzard came in. Within minutes it went from around 100m visibility to almost zero. We couldn’t see even within a meter if the snow was going up or steep downhill. The wind got really strong and made the snow so hard and slippy. And we’re in such a contoured area, it didn’t feel safe to continue. So we put the tent up and now cocooned in sleeping bags.

Was so hard and quite scary getting the tent up in such strong winds. Still really strong winds outside. Great training though for windy Antarctica! And still a really fun day (especially now from the safety of tent!)

Tomorrow is a new day

Yesterday we made great progress, covered a really good distance and had a lot of fun! And tomorrow is a new day with better weather forecast. Although it’s been a lot worse than forecast today…

Thankfully Ben says he’s never seen anything so steep up or down in Antarctica. Possibly poor route choice…